Global Food Crisis on the Way: Countries Are Shutting Down Export of Basic Commodities

The conflict in Ukraine is going to not only cause a humanitarian crisis on an already strained contingent after the 2015 African migrant crisis, but a chain reaction across the globe that is going to greatly impact the world’s food supply.

Both Russia and Ukraine export a huge amount of grain, wheat, corn, meat and importantly, fertilizer and other commodities and this has hugely dropped off since the war began.

Inflation is putting a huge amount of pressure on food prices, it’s worse than the Great Depression.

The Washington Post recently reported that since the Russian troops went into Ukraine, several countries around the world have suddenly blocked exports of these much needed resources, including Hungary and Indonesia. Ukraine has also made a similar move to ensure its people have enough food.

Inflation in the United States, hit a whopping 7.9 percent in February, due to supply chain issues and unending spending of trillions of American taxpayer  dolla4s, by the Biden administration and Democrats in the House and Senate. 

Basic commodities like wheat, have skyrocketed since the conflict began, “upending calculations of the worlds’ available food supply and leading to the rationing of flour in parts of the Middle East,” the Post noted.

Around 30 percent of the global wheat supply comes from Russia and Ukraine, 17 percent of corn and over 50 percent of sunflower seed oil also comes from that region and since fighting began, cargo ships in the Black Sea have been hit by Russian rockets.

“Boycotts of Russian ports by shipping companies and the knock-on effects of sanctions have also disrupted the flow of foods and feeds from Russia — creating problems that could grow as the Kremlin now threatens to impose export controls on some food commodities,” the Post reported.

“As bad as it is — a key wheat future surged 70 percent over the past month — the situation is poised to get worse. A new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) due out Friday estimates food and feed prices could surge 7 percent to 22 percent above already elevated levels due to the war,” the paper added.

Current prices, adjusted for inflation – are closing in on what they were during the 2007-08 collapse which were caused by droughts, rising fuel costs and trade protectionism – and at the time, brought about one of the worst food inflations, since the 1970s when the Soviet Union had a grain crisis.

The shortfalls brought on by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, can be eased in countries who produce a large amount of wheat and grains, like Australia, Argentina, India and the United States.

However, hoarding and trade protectionism has already begun in many countries, as reported by the Washington Post:

Since the Russian invasion, Indonesia has set new limits on palm oil exports to control prices. Hungary banned all grain exports last week; Serbia on Wednesday said it would ban exports of wheat, corn, flour and cooking oil. On Thursday, Egypt — a country 80 percent reliant on Russian and Ukrainian wheat — imposed controls on grain exports as the price of subsidized bread has already started to creep up.

Another looming issue is, usually at this time of year in Ukraine, farmers would be starting to sow crops for the coming year, because of the conflict, they’re not doing this.

In Ukraine, Kiev has restricted the exports of meat, rye, oats, buckwheat, sugar, millet, wheat, corn and salt and with farmers using their equipment for other uses beyond farming, there is no one growing future crops.

This is one of the biggest faults of globalism, when one domino falls, they all start to fall. There are going to be some very hard times to come in the near future.